What are the least effective affiliate programs and ways to make money online?

It would be more common to ask "What are the MOST effective ways…" that question has been asked on forums millions, and millions of times. Maybe over a billion at this point in time.
So why do I ask? I think too many people new to the scene end up wasting their time pursuing stuff like paid surveys and link shorteners.
In this post I wrote about why paid link shorteners are such a waste of time
( but most people would agree that a rate like $2.00 per 2,000 clicks of a shortened link is not a good deal at all ).
– No work is being done, no value is being added in any way that is why I wouldn’t expect it to be more.
Affiliate programs which sell digital products have higher commission rates for obvious reasons – (software is free to reproduce)

See original post by uleesgold